Modernization & AI: Key Takeaways from Gartner's 2024 Application Innovation and Business Solutions Summit

From May 14th to 16th, nearly 2,400 IT professionals converged in Las Vegas for the Gartner Application Innovation and Business Solutions Summit. This year's event saw a 20% increase in attendance, highlighting the growing demand among software executives and practitioners for insights, advice, and innovative ideas to tackle their challenges.

The AI landscape: promises and pitfalls

The summit's opening keynote, delivered by Howard Dodd and Anthony Mullen, centered on artificial intelligence. A striking statistic from their presentation caught the audience's attention: 52% of AI projects never make it into production. This sobering figure underscores the complexities and obstacles in AI deployment, despite its transformative potential.

Dodd and Mullen emphasized the critical distinction between AI and traditional AI, a point often misunderstood in the broader discourse. This distinction provided an excellent segue to discuss CAST's extensive use of AI. CAST Imaging utilizes rules and heuristics to decode the semantics of custom-built software systems from their codebase, employing graphs to store and display this intelligence. Recently, generative AI has been integrated into CAST Imaging, making this intelligence more accessible and user-friendly.

Modernization: A top priority

Modernization remained a hot topic throughout the summit, reflecting its position as a top-five investment priority for CIOs. Given that 80% of enterprises' core applications are over five years old, the urgency for modernization is clear. Stefan Van Der Zijden's session stood out, effectively summarizing the opportunities and fears associated with modernization. He highlighted the delicate balance required to upgrade these legacy systems, which are often the backbone of critical business processes.

The numerous sessions on modernization underscored its importance, and CAST Highlight drew significant attention for its ability to provide actionable insights across application portfolios, aiding IT leaders of organizations navigating the complex modernization landscape and unsure of where to start. Because the product helps prioritize which apps to modernize first, it enables quick wins that opens the doors to more modernization projects.

The unsung hero: software documentation

One of the most surprising and gratifying developments at the summit was the emphasis on software documentation. Kevin Matheny's presentation on the importance of architecture documentation brought this often-overlooked aspect into the spotlight. Matheny's recommendations, though valuable, relied heavily on manual effort and discipline—a significant challenge for many organizations.

This context made Matheny's visit to the CAST booth particularly noteworthy. There, he discovered that CAST Imaging can automatically and graphically document the architecture and inner workings of any custom-built system. This capability not only alleviates the burden of manual documentation but also ensures accuracy and comprehensiveness, addressing a critical pain point in software development.

In total, the Gartner Application Innovation and Business Solutions Summit 2024 was a vibrant convergence of ideas, innovations, and insights. From the complexities of AI to the pressing need for modernization and the often-neglected realm of software documentation, the event covered a broad spectrum of pivotal topics. CAST's contributions, particularly in the domains of AI and software intelligence, resonated strongly with the attendees, reinforcing its position as a leader in this dynamic field.

As the industry continues to evolve, the insights and innovations shared at this summit will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping the future of software engineering and application development. The increasing interest and engagement from professionals across the globe signify a promising trajectory for the continued advancement and application of software intelligence.

Article first published on the Software Intelligence Pulse.